


Anatripsis

by Fuguestate



Category: Watchmen - All Media Types
Genre: Kinkmeme prompt fill, Massage, Multi, PWP, Watchmen Kinkmeme
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-18
Updated: 2010-06-18
Packaged: 2017-10-22 21:38:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/242845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fuguestate/pseuds/Fuguestate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>"She looked him in the eye.  'How are you supposed to be at the top of your game if you can't even move?'"</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Anatripsis

"Walter." Laurie glared at him over a small glass bottle. "Do you want me to do this or not?"

" _Hrrn_."

"Oh, for God's sake... it's not _that_ kind of oil and you know it! It's just almond oil, and it barely smells like anything."

Walter was still trying to scowl a hole through the bottle's label. She'd said she'd help him, but this wasn't what he'd expected.

"Look, I can tell it hurts. Your posture's been off for two days straight." She laid a surprisingly gentle hand at his shoulder. "C'mon... I can't show Dan how to do this if you won't let me, and it's going to take both of us to get you unknotted, I can already tell." She looked him in the eye. "How are you supposed to be at the top of your game if you can't even move?"

She was right. And it wasn't as though she and Dan both hadn't seen him before. But this little green bottle made it… different. This was something specifically designed for touching. _Intimate_ touching. Something that was bought at a - a _store_. Something that required bare skin, and close contact, and whoever sold it to them knew this, which only made it worse as he pictured the smirk on this unknown someone's face as they must have assumed _things_ about the people who bought such products, imagining…

Enough. This was necessary. It wasn't as straightforward as enduring an injury – far from it – but there were no other options.

He met her eyes and with grim determination shed his shirt and undershirt.

.

Laurie visibly relaxed. "Good. All right..." she moved to tie back her hair, "you should take off your shoes too, and also your belt. Everything else can stay." She called to Dan while Walter dubiously followed her instructions. As Dan came in, she grabbed one of the pillows on the bed and turned it sideways. "Ok, Walter. Set this under you so you're not holding yourself up to breathe. This won't work if you're not relaxed."

Dan sat uncertainly on the other side of the bed while Walter eased himself face-down on the pillow in contradiction to instincts that were decades old. Laurie's brusque matter-of-factness was actually working in all their favor for once; there was no way Walter could mistake this for some sort of seduction.

The coolness of the pillow against his flushed chest made his jaw clench to keep his teeth from chattering. Soon the fabric warmed enough for him to settle, and he became aware of Laurie moving in close to him.

"Ok," she unscrewed the bottle, "I'm gonna do what I can from this angle. I _should_ be straddling you to get the best leverage, but I didn't think you'd appreciate that." She snickered at his growl and poured oil into her palm, handing the bottle off to Dan while she carefully rubbed her hands together.

Walter gasped and tensed at the smooth sweep of her hands over his skin, prompting her to slide them back up gently between his shoulder blades. "Re- _lax_ ," she huffed, not waiting for him to follow her instructions and running her thumbs in small, symmetrical circles along the top of his back as she continued. "See, Dan, the trick is to work from the center out. God, Walter, you're like a _rock_!" Her probing fingers worked their way down.

The sensation was painful in a way he found he didn't want to stop, pulling strained half-sounds from him as knots were found and pressed, kneaded. She was leaning a good bit of her weight into him, the slickness of the oil keeping her motions not brutal, but not quite gentle either. He could feel the strength behind the heels of her hands as she resorted to using them rather than her fingers. "Breathe," she murmured when his breath caught, her own breathing growing audible with her exertions. She moved her way back up, to a spot just under his left shoulder blade. "Here?" she asked, pressing experimentally.

"Ngh," was all he could manage, but she took it as an affirmative. She concentrated on that spot, pressing in to the point of pain, but it was a _good_ pain. It was like reaching an itch he hadn't known he'd had, the feeling lancing down his arm and up along the side of his neck before muscle fibers grudgingly loosened.

Laurie's lesson continued above him. "Sometimes it helps to just put pressure on the biggest knots, sort of shocking them loose. Then you can go back to massaging them." She suited action to words, running her thumbs along the spot she'd been pressing.

It pulled a moan from Walter, surprising them all.

.

" _That's_ better," she smirked, working her knuckles into the twin ribbons of tension running along his spine. Again and again they bore into his back, twisting smoothly and steadily into muscle fibers as they traveled downward, reaching the base of his spine and then beginning their journey all over again.

Warm arcs of pain (pleasure?) sparked through him with every movement of her hands. She was only touching a few square inches of him at any time but he could feel it _everywhere_ \- down his legs, through his fingers, up into his scalp. Unknowingly his breathing synched with hers as she moved above him.

Dan just watched them, amazed. It spoke as much to the level of Walter's discomfort that he'd finally agreed to this as it did to Laurie's bullheaded determination. Touching was always an uneasy subject, requiring negotiations and reassurances that would give a diplomat fits even when it was _Walter_ initiating it. Laurie often likened it to dealing with a stray dog (though never in Walter's earshot), always having to make sure he didn't turn and attack at a wrong move. But now he lay still under her, and his willingly vulnerable position was doing all sorts of interesting things to their rapt audience.

Dan himself knew only the barest basics of giving a massage - mostly shoulder-rubs with a date that would hopefully lead to something more. Watching Laurie work on Walter gave him an entirely new perspective on this activity. She was frowning in concentration and exertion, trying to undo damage and offer comfort. It reminded Dan of the serious need for this, and of his responsibility to learn. Not that it wasn't enjoyable, too… Right now Laurie's ponytail had slipped down over one shoulder, and every now and then she leaned close enough for it to drift along Walter's skin. The contrast of her hands' firm, controlled movements with the feather-light brush of her hair over Walter's muscular form was distinctly pleasurable to watch. To feel, as well, if Walter's reactions were any indication. He was trying to stifle himself, but Laurie's persistent instructions for him to let himself breathe and relax meant that the occasional groan or sigh briefly escaped.

" _Umh_ \- Dan." His attention snapped back to Laurie as she sat up to brush her bangs off her forehead for a moment. "I think I need to give you a turn, before you need to work on us both. You ready?"

"S-sure…" He moved closer and tried not to be too fascinated by the sight of Walter's almost drugged expression, or the way his flushed skin shone with the massage oil. "Where do you want me?"

.

He winced at how suggestive that sounded, but Laurie only cast him a sidelong look with an arch smile. "Just get settled on Walter's other side. How're you doing, Walter?" she murmured, leaning in close.

"Rrnn…"

Laurie grinned over at Dan, still addressing Walter. "We're going to need something more specific than that… how's your shoulder feeling?"

"Mh," Walter stirred slightly. "Feels… itchy now."

"Under the skin?" She tried a stroking press against the spot.

He grunted an affirmative, squirming slightly.

"Ok," she soothed, still letting her hands glide over him, "we'll keep working on that. Sounds like your nerve endings are awake again, at least." She looked over to Dan. "Get comfortable, make sure your hands are warm, and get some oil. Ok, follow my movements for a minute."

Walter had only enough time to process that sentence before he had two sets of hands running down his back. He moaned as they covered him, digging into his skin. He could actually feel individual muscle strands shifting under their touch, sometimes painfully but never enough for him to want it to stop. Laurie's small, sharp hands were finding every knot he hadn't known he'd had, and now Dan's broader, calloused ones shadowed in heavier yet gentler counterpoint. They worked in tandem, their hands moving in smooth, symmetrical patterns over his back that flowed and changed faster than Walter could follow them.

Gradually Laurie eased back until Dan was doing the work on his own. The basic idea was easy enough, and he did what he could to soothe the flesh under his hands. The faint moans and hitches in Walter's breathing guided him even as they conspired with the oil's slickness to distract him. It at least helped – in a backward sort of way – that he could feel the tension that still marred the symmetry of Walter's back. There was no way Walter could deny now that anything had been wrong before – the evidence was literally under Dan's hands. "Jesus, Walter, Laurie was right… how could you even _move_ like this?" He shook his head.

"No wonder you've been in such a horrible mood," Laurie half-joked as she wiped her hands with the towel from the dresser. She knelt by the bed to stroke Walter's hair. "Stop scowling at me, you're supposed to be relaxing."

Walter had a scathing retort poised to let fly, but Dan's thumbs pressed up and in just so, reducing whatever he'd been about to say to a low whine.

Laurie's smile was knowing, but not unkind. "There, see? Just let us do this for you." Her fingers toyed with his hair and Walter let himself close his eyes.

.

She'd never really done this before – just touched Walter for the sake of touching him. For one thing, he was never relaxed enough to accept it. When he wasn't decrying the things they did together as perverse (even though he obviously enjoyed them), he was simply pulling into himself, away from _any_ contact whatsoever. It took her a long time to see the same thing that Dan did; that the reason Walter held them at bay so fiercely was because he wanted them both _so damn much_. The first time they'd kissed had been a revelation, and the low, needy sound he'd made had almost sent her over the edge right on the spot.

Now she indulged herself with light scratches along Walter's scalp and gentle tugs on his curls. She was still helping him relax, technically speaking – just in a different way. Besides, he seemed to be too caught up in what Dan was doing to worry about her. At that thought she realized with a small twinge of guilt that she hadn't checked on her pupil to see how he was doing and shifted her focus. She needn't have worried; Dan had begun with brow furrowed in concentration and nervousness, but now his face was almost serene. He seemed to be in a near-trance as he moved, hands exploring and probing in a seamless glide. She'd only seen that look when he was especially absorbed, whether it was working with a complex piece of machinery or when he was making love. _And I guess this is a little like both_ , she thought with a sudden grin.

Dan was fascinated by the slide of Walter's skin under his hands, aware of the muscles underneath for what felt like the first time. By now he knew each scar and freckle on the surface by heart - he could even name where nearly every one of the former came from – but here was the foundation beneath all of that. He was following the paths of understructure in Walter's back and discovering its form... discovering _him_ in a whole new way.

Walter, in turn, could feel Dan's touch studying him, learning how things worked and figuring out how to fix them like he always did. He'd always admired Dan's mechanical skills. Watching him, especially his hands, steady and precise with his various inventions, had been a guilty pleasure for a long time. Now _he_ was the focus of those hands, like a machine Dan was trying to put right again, and they were as careful and sure in their work as he'd always imagined them to be. He burned and ached where Dan's hands slid along him, and the care he could feel in his and Laurie's touch on him was almost more than he could stand.

"W-Walter?" Dan's soft, uncertain whisper floated to him. "I need to reach... there's a big knot here and—I need to straddle you, okay?" Walter tensed, but Dan was quick to reassure, "I'll be good, I promise." His words were light, almost teasing, but a promise all the same.

He mustered a nod, eyes still closed because he _could_ keep them closed, he told himself. This was all right. It was good. He could trust.

One of Dan's hands slid away while the other moved to the center of his back, barely touching and leaving a shiver in its wake. The mattress shifted as Dan leaned up, and then dipped where Dan placed his foot to kneel over him. The hand on his back was steady, gentle. It lifted briefly and was followed by the whisper of Dan warming more oil between his palms. Both hands returned, thumbs aligning low under his ribcage and then _pressed_ , firm and deep. His breath hitched, caught, and then sobbed out of him as Dan's weight bore down, pinning without threat, finding every hurt and slowly pushing it into and through and out of him again and again.

Walter's jaw was slack, his eyes pressed closed and the sounds coming from him were... amazing. Guiltily, Laurie realized this was _really_ turning her on as another shuddering groan from Walter set her stomach to doing flip-flops. Dan was being true to his word, only allowing his hands to touch Walter and doing his best to apply what he'd learned from Laurie's brief lesson. That made it even better somehow – or worse, as she remembered this _wasn't_ supposed to be a seduction just as Walter cried out again. Dan was having the same problem, if the tented front of his sweatpants was any indication. Hell with it, she decided. She could still enjoy the show.

The movement of Dan's hands was hypnotic. She'd always marveled at how much larger they were than her own, and at how gentle they could be. Now, slicked with oil and gliding over Walter's substantial musculature, they were irresistible. The strength in both men was readily apparent as Dan gradually worked into the tense flesh beneath him until it became pliant once again.

Dan's touch grew steadily gentler as he worked out the knots in Walter's back until finally he was simply stroking him, smoothing over one side and then the other while Walter sighed. He wanted so badly to be running his hands over more than just Walter's back; envisioning gliding his hands up the inside of strong thighs had Dan groaning right along with him. Laurie wasn't faring much better, he could see. The way her eyes followed his hands' every move was making him so hard he could barely see straight, and it was everything he could do to keep his movement soothing for Walter's sake.

For his part, Walter's skin was now hyper-aware of every touch upon him. He could almost feel the individual ridges of Dan's fingerprints gliding down his back, and each hair on his head sent tiny shivers through him as Laurie's hand moved in small circles over his scalp. His hands clenched and unclenched, his mind turning guiltily to what their hands might feel like elsewhere. A soft, liquid sweep down his spine caught him unprepared and sent his hips canting forward into the mattress with a low cry, and he felt their hands falter.

"Oh god... buddy, I know I promised, and I... " Dan's voice failed him.

Laurie could see how desperately Dan was trying to control himself and was trying to form words herself when, miraculously, Walter's eyes opened to meet hers in blatant want.

"Laurel..." One unsteady hand reached to brush her cheek. "... both – b-both of you..." He struggled with himself, eyes clenching shut with a whine as Dan's fingertips skimmed down his sides. " _please_ -" His hesitant half-turn beneath Dan told them all they needed to know.

In one seamless motion Dan lifted his weight and moved with Walter's turn to lie behind him, his breath warming the nape of Walter's neck as his still-slick fingers continued to stroke down his back. Laurie drew close, cradling Walter's face for a searing kiss. Reaching down, she cupped Walter in a shaking hand, shuddering at the sound it pulled from him.

His trousers were unfastened and he was freed with almost superhuman haste, and Laurie sat up to fetch the bottle. Walter and Dan groaned with one voice as she slowly poured oil into her palm and then stretched herself out along Walter's front. Their ministrations had left him warm and loose, almost unable to move, and a surge of pure lust went through her at the sight.

As Walter watched, Dan's hand lifted to meet hers to share the slickness between them, their glistening fingers twining together before reaching down to encircle his erection. Helplessly he cried out at the warm, wet slide of their hands, as much a torture as it was a relief. Surrounded in their arms, his hands latched onto Laurie's shoulders and one leg swept back to tangle with Dan's to draw them all together. He was already teetering on the edge; inexorably, their slippery touch on him coiled warmth deeper and deeper until he finally broke between them, the last of his energy shuddering out in the aftershocks.

Drifting near unconsciousness and feeling impossibly loose-limbed, Walter met Laurie's eyes as Dan gently toweled them all off. "Mnh. Ver' good idea, Laurel. Thank you." His voice was low and syrupy.

Laurie grinned down at him, her own frustrated arousal _almost_ forgotten. "You're welcome." She planted a gentle, audacious kiss on his nose. "Though you're gonna owe us for later," she added, even as Dan's faint whimper sounded behind him.

Walter almost smiled as his eyes drifted shut. "Certain I'll think of something."

 

-fin

**Author's Note:**

> Written for this prompt at Watchmen Kinkmeme v.4.0:
> 
>  _"Walter gets a back massage. Don't care who's giving it, don't care if there's a "happy ending" involved. I just want to see the tense little vigilante get his knots worked out and dissolve into a puddle of happy ginger goo."_


End file.
